Together with his wartime resolution to become a writer, Alfred Andersch's desertion from the Wehrmacht in 1944 was the turning point in his life. As a long-time Communist, it was also the obvious climax to his long-standing revulsion towards and opposition to the Third Reich. In The Cherries of Freedom, a great and humane book, he interpreted his desertion from the Germany army not as fear of death but as an existential vote for life, liberty and all things non-totalitarian. After the war was over, Andersch continued his career with some influential radio work (in which he modeled his own broadcasting on the BBC's Third Programme), and above all with his numerous novels, of which the short Sansibar, (1957) - which is being currently reissued as Flight to Afar - was to achieve the greatest acclaim. Translated into every major language, it became an international bestseller in its day.The Cherries of Freedom has been translated by Michael Hulse, the distinguished translator of W.G. Sebald.